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pieces falling into place? Citroen "get rid" of Matton who screwed up their re-entry to WRC, Famin comes in and brings Loeb along.

Farmin? He was lucky to save his neck after ’15 Dakar flop…btw, aren’t we being a bit unfair to Matton? Yep, he failed to manage Citroen ’17 full return to WRC, but besides 2012 WRC titles and after Loeb’s departure, what more could a low budget Citroen realistically hope than being 2nd to VW, like they were in 13/14/15 (they missed ’16)?

Besides, he was also behind Citroen’s WTCC successful campaign and it was thanks to Matton that Meeke returned to the WRC, besides allowing two young drivers, Lefebvre and Breen, to start and carry on WRC careers.

If he’s confirmed as FIA rally chief I believe he’ll do better than Mahonen and won’t defend his predecessor (or the promoter) foolish proposals. Fingers crossed.

Matton has flopped so badly in Citroen, that it's not even funny. He took an all conquering squad, which under his watch has turned into a laughing stock. From ousting Ogier, to not renewing Neuville for 4 events, then allienating Loeb, ignoring Meeke, his shortcomings are endless. As for WTCC, the rules were tailor made to Citroen, and on top of the best car , they also had the best drivers in Muller and Lopez. So, winning the championships there wasn't exactly a triumph of the outsider.

Many may be sceptical, with the last year of Citroën Racing, although it's probably easy to point all failure to him. Even if he doesn't have any influence on the car itself, and even if Meeke himself asked to step back for Poland... I think Matton could be a great choice to run as rally manager for FIA. He used to drive himself as an amateur in the late 80's, early 90's. During the 90s he started a team offering cars for rent etc, and he founded the Citroën Rally Challenge in Belgium, which every rally enthousiast from Belgium remembers. It was a great competition for drivers with limited budget. Later he started at Citroën Racing and worked his way up. Alongside that he was running MY Racing where many young drivers got their chances to drive (like Neuville and Weijs). He knows the sport on all levels and has seen it from different points of view. He was also the one who countered the (stupid) ideas of Capito. If I'm not mistaken, Matton was also the one who wanted more freedom for organizers to create longer events (and to create or keep their own identity), a couple of years ago. So in my point of view, I think it wouldn't be a bad choice...

Matton has flopped so badly in Citroen, that it's not even funny. He took an all conquering squad, which under his watch has turned into a laughing stock. From ousting Ogier, to not renewing Neuville for 4 events, then allienating Loeb, ignoring Meeke, his shortcomings are endless. As for WTCC, the rules were tailor made to Citroen, and on top of the best car , they also had the best drivers in Muller and Lopez. So, winning the championships there wasn't exactly a triumph of the outsider.

I won’t say your recall is wrong, as time goes by and we all tend to forget things, but this is the way I remember: Ogier (still under Quesnel management) leaved at the end of 2011 because he wasn’t happy about being Citroen’s number two; Loeb leaved at the start of 2013 because he was tired from 10 full WRC seasons; Meeke was picked up by Matton in late 2013, when nobody cared about him; WRC budget suffered a huge bump after Citroen started to run WTCC (2014) and, like you say, Loeb was dispensed in last WTCC season because they decided to run just 2 cars and he was slower than Lopez/Muller. All considered I can only see one major flop in Matton’s path: 2017.